With the widespread use of the Internet throughout the general public, there has been a rapid increase not only in passive users who browse the Web and search for information or purchase commodities online, but also in active users who publish quasi-diaries (hereinafter referred to as a “blog”) on the Web or form user communities that share common interests. The spread of blogs throughout the general public represents an emergence and rapid growth of societies on the networks (hereinafter referred to as a “network community”), which are different from the real world and were unimaginable when people were browsing the Web on terminal devices having the capability to connect to the networks.
Under these circumstances, more and more users are using avatars that represent themselves on networks. An avatar, which means “alter ego”, is specifically a so-called character expressed by image data, video data, audio data, or the like; it is acquiring its significance of existence as a pseudo-acting entity in various activities where a user expresses himself/herself, talks, sympathizes or discusses with other users, or builds friendship with people having a common interest in network communities that exist apart from the real world.
Coordinating an avatar's items including hair styles, clothes, accessories, goods, and backgrounds is now one of important activities for a user to draw attention to his/her own senses and preferences in a network community. Users are thus getting or buying these items or giving them to their friends as gifts, which means coordinating avatar items is now one target of economic activity (Patent Literature 1, for example).